Once upon a time, not very long ago, a woman named Anne Ferguson worked at the Vermont Department of Health, and she had an idea. To encourage families to go outside, be active together and engage with literacy, she decided to get destructive. That is, in cahoots with a librarian at the Kellog-Hubbard library, she deconstructed a book, pulling it apart, and posting each page in a place where people could walk and read and engage, being tugged along the story walk by the story itself.

There is something about a simply great idea (a meme, as it were) that wants to replicate itself and spread. StoryWalks® have now been installed in 50 states and 13 countries including, Germany, Canada, England, Bermuda, Russia, Malaysia, Pakistan and South Korea!

Including Pemberton, in the land of the Lil’wat people.

Pemberton’s latest offering has popped up on the fencing en route to One Mile Lake, from the corner of Vine Road, towards Underhill Park, thanks to permission from the Lil’wat Business Group, funding from the Whistler Pemberton Literacy Partnership, and permission from Penguin Random House to use the story. And thanks most of all to the team of all-stars at the Pemberton & District Public Library, who know that we need to take our reading outside during the flying summer months, and so, have hatched a host of ways to help us maintain our literacy love, from a grown-up Literacy Bingo, to Summer Reading Club, to gorgeous chalk-art appearing around the community centre (Molli Reynolds as our very own Banksy), pop up family story times at Pioneer Park, and more. To keep track of all their awesome offerings, or find a good book recco to go with your summer vibes, follow the library on instagram at @pembylibrary and/or sign up for their monthly newsletter so you don’t miss a trick.

(Sign up at https://libraries.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=4edac3be9c878a1154cb6b757&id=025ac38fc8)

🦖How to be a T. Rex by Ryan North. 
‘Being a regular old human is kind of a drag. That’s why Sal is not going to be a teacher or doctor or lawyer when she grows up. She is going to grow up to be an awesome Tyrannosaurus Rex. Her brother thinks it’s impossible, but Sal sure shows him! And in the beginning, being a T. Rex is AWESOME. But did you know that it’s kind of hard to make friends when you are a super-giant, super-loud, super-stompy dinosaur? If only there were a way for Sal to be 100% awesome, 100% of the time…’